


Tantrums are for children

by EmmmaMmmm



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:34:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25675906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmmmaMmmm/pseuds/EmmmaMmmm
Summary: Neil has a bad day. Jack needs to fuck off.
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 2
Kudos: 245





	Tantrums are for children

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, I have an inherent inability to title things when I write them, and an even more inherent ability to make good decisions, so I wrote it and posted it and will thoroughly regret it soon enough. I also don't understand tags. Somebody please educate me.

Sometimes Neil has bad days. After the way he grew up, frankly he's not sure anyone should be allowed to hold them against him. But this bad day has been made even worse by one person: Jack. Fucking Jack. Always Jack.

Jack, with his shitty whispered "Wesninski"s in the middle of scrimmages, Jack with his arrogant attitude and fanboy crush on Kevin. Jack, who can't seem to understand why Neil is vice-captain, who doesn't like that the upperclassmen defer to him. On a good day, Neil can handle Jack. He's just a child who needs to grow up, after all. But on a bad day, it's all too much, and with Kevin's constant high standards being just a little too high, and Andrew's apathy that grates a little too much on his nerves, he ends up walking out of practise early.

Nobody comes after him and he doesn't really expect them to, but the voice in his head that sounds too much like his father for him to be completely okay or even a little bit okay is telling him that they've chosen Jack over him, or worse, that they've just chosen not to bother with him. One of them is bad enough - the other sends an icy chill down his spine and before he knows it, he's running.

Palmetto isn't a mystery to him anymore. He knows every single road that leads back to the court, back home. He knows every single back alley, every shortcut, and every scenic spot for him to get in some running. He makes it through three before he needs to stop, before the voice in his head starts screaming at him rather than its dull comments from before.

When he gets back to Fox Tower, the others are already back. A glance upwards shows Andrew perched on the edge of the roof, looking down at him. He almost wants to go straight to their room in a bout of pettiness, but then he will have to deal with Kevin's scolding and if he has to deal with that, he's almost certain he will end up starting a fight that he has no hope of winning.

Sighing, he climbs the stairs and steps out onto the roof. Andrew doesn't turn around, doesn't acknowledge him. He just keeps smoking his cigarette. The only sign that he even knows that Neil is there is the cigarette packet he sets on the wall beside him. Neil takes one out and Andrew lights it for him and they're just existing for a moment.

"Tantrums are for children, Junkie."

His father's voice gets louder. _He's going to get sick of you. Why would he keep you around? Hear that? You're a child, Nathaniel._

"Fuck off." Neil breathes in the smoke but he's too frustrated for it to have the usual effect. "I'm not in the fucking mood."

"Johnny won't stop until you make him."

"Oh, for..." Neil snuffs out the cigarette and leaves the butt resting on the wall. "Can't you fucking let this go?"

"Don't turn your shitty mood on me." Andrew has long since mastered the art of casual boredom, but Neil can hear the warning in his voice. "I'm not who you're pissed at."

"Says who?" Neil throws his hands up in the air. "Jack is a little shit and I'll never live up to Kevin's standards, but you... You don't care about anything!"

Neil knows it's a low blow, which is probably why he isn't surprised when Andrew reaches up and lays one hand around Neil's throat. What does surprise him is the way that Andrew reaches down with his other hand and separates two of Neil's fingers, pressing them against Andrew's pulse point. He can feel the calm, steady thrumming of it beneath them.

Andrew tugs him closer. "Yes or no?"

Neil almost wants to say no, can't figure out why Andrew seems to think now is the time, but he wouldn't turn down anything Andrew's willing to give him even if he's annoyed.

"Yes."

Andrew kisses him, and his pulse beats out a samba beneath his fingers, and Neil gets it. He once questioned how a man who viewed the world with such studied disconnect could kiss so intensely, but this isn't disconnect; this is feeling. Feeling in the same way that standing on the roof once gave him a jolt of adrenaline. Feeling in the same way that Neil going missing back in Baltimore sent him reeling.

Andrew's kiss is bruising and brief, and when he pulls away, Neil can see just a hint of that darkness that came out only rarely since his return from Easthaven.

"I hate you," he snarls and Neil understands. "Don't be so fucking stupid."

For just a moment, Neil thinks about Andrew losing his self control after he was taken, taking the upperclassmen to Eden's Twilight simply because Neil asked, driving him to and from court when he needed the late night practise and giving Neil the space to hold his ground against anyone he needs to. For so long, his heart beat out Andrew Andrew Andrew in a familiar rhythm and it had killed him to know that it was one sided. Now he is starting to wonder just how one sided it had been.

The next day, Jack makes another comment and Neil throws his racquet aside to punch him hard in the face. He showers last and Andrew waits for him afterwards with steady hands and hard kisses.

"About time," he says and Neil wonders if Andrew knows that his voice has become home.

Neil doesn't ask though. Sometimes he has bad days. He just forgets that he has a safe place to go when he does.


End file.
